Flag
Flag
See Reed Rush
Fuente: Plants Animals Of Bible
Flag
(as the name of a plant) stands in the Auth. Vers. as the representative in part of two Heb. words. SEE BOTANY.
1. Achu’ (; Sept. Grs-cizes , , ; Vulg. locus palustris, carectaus-), a word, according to Jerome (Comment. in Isa 19:7), of Egyptian origin, and denoting ” any green and coarse herbage, such as rushes and reeds, which grows in marshy places” (comp. Gesenius, Thes. Heb. p. 67). III Job 8:11, it is asked, ” Can the achu (“flag”) grow without water?” It seems probable that some apacsfie plant is here denoted, as Celsius has endeavored to prove (Herob. i, 342), for the achu is mentioned with the gome or “papyrus.” See the treatise of Happoch, De papyro, etc. (Coburg, 1772; with the Adlitaument. ib. 1777). The word occurs once again in Gen 12:2; Gen 12:18, where it is said that the seven well-favored kine came .up out of the river and fed in an achu (” meadow”). Now it is generally well known that most of the plants which grow in ‘water, as well as many of those which grow in its vicinity, are not well suited as food for cattle; some being very watery, others very coarse in texture, and some possessed of acrid and even poisonous properties. None, therefore, of the Algxa can be intended, nor any’ species of Butomus, or “flowering rush” (as might be inferred from one rendering of the Sept.).
The different kinds of Juencus, or rush, though abounding in such situations, are not suited for pasturage, and, in fact, are avoided by cattle. So are the majority of the Qqyperace, or sedge tribe; and also the numerous species of (‘arex, which grow in moist situations, yet yield a very coarse grass, which is scarcely if ever touched by cattle. A few species; of Cyperus serve as pasturage, and the roots of some, of them are esculent and aromatic; but these must be dug up before cattle can feed on them. Some species of Scirpus, or club-rush, however, serve as food for cattle: S. cespilosus, for instance, is the principal food of cattle and sheep in the highlands of Scotland from the beginning of March till the end of May, Varieties of S. meritimus, found in different countries, and a few of the numerous kinds of Cyperacese common- in Indian pastures, as Cyperasr dubius and hexastachkyss, are also eaten by cattle. Therefore, if any specific plant is intended, as seems implied in what goes before, it is perhaps one of the edible species of scirpus or cyperus, perhaps C. esculentmss, which, however, has distinct Arabic names: or it may be a true grass; some species of panicum, for instance, which form excellent pasture in warm countries, and several of which grow luxuriantly in the neighborhood of water. But it is weal known to all acquainted with warm countries subject to excessive drought- that the only pasturage to which. cattle can resort is a green strip of different grasses, with some sedges, which runs along the banks of rivers or of pieces of water, varying more or less id breadth according to the height of the bank, that is, the distance of water from the surface. Cattle emerging-from rivers, which they may often be seen doing in hot countries, would naturally go to such green herbage as intimated in this passage of Genesis, and which, as indicated in Job 18:2, could not grow without water in a warm, dry country and climate. Kitto (Pict. Bib. on Genesis , 1. c.) identifies this sedge with thie’, of Theophrastus (Hist. Plant. 4:8, 12), which plant was much eaten by sheep and cattle.’ There is, however, much doubt as to what the malinathalla denotes, as Schneider has shown. Theodotion, in Job 8:11, has ; and occurs in .the. Sept. (Isa 19:7) also as the representative of (A. V. “paper reeds”), which word is explained by Gesenius, naked places without trees-the grassy places on the banks of the Nile. The same Greek word is used by the son of Sirach, Eccles. 11:16 ( or , for; the copies vary). As no similar name is known to be .pplied to any plant or plants in Hebrew, endeavors have been made to find a similar one so applied in the cognate languages (see Jablonski, Opusc. i, 45; ii, 159, ed. Te-Water), and, as quoted by Dr. Harris (Nat. Hist. of the Bible, s.v.), the learned Chapellon says, “We have no radix for , unless we derive it, as Schultens does (Comment. in Job , 1. c.), from the Arabic achi, to bind or join together.” Hence it has been inferred that it might be someone of the grasses or sedges employed in former times, as some still are, for making ropes. But there is probably some other Arabic root which has not yet been ascertained, or which may have become obsolete; for there are numerous words in the Arabic language having reference to greenness, all of which have akh as a common element. Thus akhyas, thickets, dark groves, places- full of reeds or flags, in which animals take shelter; akhevas,’ putting forth leaves; so akhzirar, greenness, verdure; a/khchish!lb, abounding in grass. These may be connected with kah, a common term for grass in Northern India, derived from the Persian, whence amber is called kah- robehy grass-attracter. SEE REED.
2 . Suph. (, Sept. , Vulg. carectum, pelagus) occurs frequently in the 0. T. in connection with yam, “sea,” to denote the “Red Sea” (q.v.). The term here appears to be used in a very wide sense to denote ” weeds of any kind.” The yam-suph, therefore, is the “sea of weeds,” and perhaps, as Stanley (S. and P. p. 6, note) observes, suph “may be applied to any aqueous vegetation,” which would include the arborescent coral growths for which this sea is celebrated, as well as the different algae which grow at the bottom: see Pliny (H. N. 13:25) and Shaw (Travels, p. 387, fol. 1738), who speaks of a “variety of algae and fuci that grow within its channel, and at low water are left in great quantities upon the sea-shore” (see also p. 384). The word suph in Jon 2:5, translated “weeds” by the A. V., has, there can be no doubt, reference to ” seaweed,” and more especially to the long, ribbon-like fronds of the Laminarie, or the entangled masses of Fuci. In Exo 2:3; Exo 2:5, however, where we read that Moses was laid “in the suph, A. V. ‘flags,’ by the river’s brink,” it is probable that “reeds” or “rushes,” etc., are denoted, as Rab. Salomon explains it, “a place thick with reeds.” (See Celsius, Hierob. ii, 66.) The yam-suph in the Coptic version (as in Exo 10:19; Exo 13:18; Psa 106:7; Psa 106:9; Psa 106:22) is rendered “the Sari-sea.” The word sari is the old Egyptian for a sedge of some kind. Jablonski (Opusc. i, 266) gives Juncus as its rendering, and compares a passage in Theophrastus (Hist. Plant. 4:8, 2, 5) which thus describes the sari: “The sari grows in water about marshes and those watery places which the liver after its return to its bed leaves behind it; it has a hard and closely-twisted root, from which spring the saria (stalks) so-called.” Pliny (Hr. N. 13:23) thus speaks of this plant: ” The sari, which grows about the Nile, is a shrubby kind of plant (?), commonly being about two cubits high, and as thick as a man’s thumb; it has the panicle (coma) of the papyrus, and is similarly eaten; the root, on account of its hardness, is used in blacksmiths’ shops instead of charcoal.” Sprengel (Hist. Herb. i, 78) identifies the sari of Theophrastus with the Cyperusfastigiatus, Linn.; but the description is too vague to serve as a sufficient basis for identification. There can be little doubt that suph is sometimes used in a general sense like our English ” weeds.” It cannot be restricted to denote alga, as Celsius has endeavored to show, because none of the proper algce are found in the Nile. Lady Calcott (Script. Hlerb. p. 158) thinks the Zostera marina (“grass-wrack”) may be intended, but there is nothing in favor of such an opinion. The svph of Isa 19:6, where it is mentioned with the kaneh, appears to be used in a more restricted sense to denote some species of ” reed” or “tall grass.” There are various kinds of C.yperacece and tall Graminacece, such as A rundo and Saccharum, in Egypt. SEE WEED.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Flag (2)
(as a military term) is represented generally in Heb. by de’gei, such being those borne by the Israelitish camp during their march through the wilderness. Each three tribes had a banner of this description (Num 1:52; Num 2:2 sq.; Num 10:14 sq.), of the color and form of which the Rabbins have many legendary stories (see Jonathan on Numbers ii; comp. Carpzov, Appar. p. 667 sq.). The tribe of Judah (together with Issachar and Zebulon) bore as a device a young lion (compare Gen 42:9); the tribe of Reuben (with Simeon and Gad), a man (according to Jonathan, a stag, instead of the bullock, as a memento of the golden calf, Gen 49:6); Ephraim (with Manasseh and Benjamin), a steer (boys, according to Jonathan); Dan (with Asher and Naphtali), an eagle (according to Jonathan, a cerastes; comp. Gen 49:17), on their tribal standard. How the field-ensigns of the several families, which in those passages are called , signs, differed from these , is not clearly defined. The assertion of colored pennants (Harmer, i, 478) is not sustained by proof. On the pretended motto upon the banner of the Maccabees, SEE MACCABAEUS. , nes, which is often taken for a banner; is a military signal raised upon a mountain as a telegraphic notice (Isa 5:26; Isa 13:2; Isa 23:3; Isa 30:17; Isa 62:10, etc.; comp. Cicero, Attic. 10:17; Macrob. Saturn. i, 16), and may have usually consisted of a high pole with a streamer flying from its summit. Others regard it rather as a beacon fire- (, ; comp. Curtius, v, 2, 7; 7:7, 5, 13). See generally Faber, ii, 462 sq.; Jahn, II, ii, 462 sq.; Celsius, De Vexillis Hebr: (Upsal. 1727). To the Roman standards, aquilce (Josephus, War, iii, 62; comp. Hermann, ad Lucian. conscrib. hist. p. 185), an allusion apparently occurs in Mat 24:28. (On the Egyptian ensigns, see Wilkinson, i, 294.’ Rosellini, II, iii, 230.) The Persians under Cyrus bore the same symbol (Xenoph. Cyrop. 7:i, 4; but Eze 17:3 is not in point, being a reference to Chaldaean usages). See generally Lydii Synt. sacr. de re milit. iii, 7. SEE BANNER.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Flag
(Heb., or rather Egyptian, ahu, Job 8:11), rendered “meadow” in Gen. 41:2, 18; probably the Cyperus esculentus, a species of rush eaten by cattle, the Nile reed. It also grows in Palestine.
In Ex. 2:3, 5, Isa. 19:6, it is the rendering of the Hebrew _suph_, a word which occurs frequently in connection with _yam_; as _yam suph_, to denote the “Red Sea” (q.v.) or the sea of weeds (as this word is rendered, Jonah 2:5). It denotes some kind of sedge or reed which grows in marshy places. (See PAPER, REED.)
Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Flag
Exo 2:3. Cuwph Hebrew, the Egyptian tufi or sufi. An undesigned coincidence that so many Egyptian words should occur in Exodus, just what we should expect if it be, as it professes, Moses’ record; but no Hebrew reared in Palestine long after the Exodus would have had the knowledge of the Egyptian tongue which the many plainly Hebraized Egyptian words in Exodus indicate that its author possessed; nor would the author have used these words with out explanation of their meaning, had he not known that his readers were equally familiar with them. This flag is a species of papyrus, distinct from and less than that commonly used in Egypt to construct light boats, namely, the “Bulrush papyrus (from whence comes our paper), of which Moses’ ark was made. (See BULRUSH.)
The cuwph or “secondary papyrus” is again used in the case of Egypt, Isa 19:6. Also “the Red Sea,” the sea of suph (Exo 10:19). Gesenius explains “seaweed” or “rush”; a seaweed like wool is thrown in quantities on its shores. Jon 2:5-6 uses it of “the seaweeds wrapped about his head,” for He was not swallowed by the fish at once, but sank to the bottom, where the seaweed was his grave-napkin; thence the fish swallowed him. Another Hebrew word, ‘achu, is translated “flag”, Job 8:11; in Gen 41:2 “a meadow.” Jerome on Isa 19:7 says the Egyptians told him it meant “everything green growing in marshes”; the sedge, rank reed grass by the river’s side. An Egyptian word, akh-akh, “green,” occurs in a very old papyrus.
Fuente: Fausset’s Bible Dictionary
Flag
FLAG.1. ch (Job 8:11), prop. reed-grass (cf. Gen 41:2; Gen 41:18). 2. sph (Exo 2:3; Exo 2:6, Isa 19:6), sedgy plants by the Nile and its canals.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Flag
Two Hebrew words:
(1) , suph (Exo 2:3, Exo 2:1, flags; Isa 19:6, flags; Jon 2:5, weeds). This is apparently a general name which includes both the fresh-water weeds growing along a river bank and seaweeds. The Red Sea was known as Yam suph.
(2) , ‘ahu (Gen 41:2, Gen 41:18, the King James Version meadow, the Revised Version (British and American) reed-grass; Job 8:11, Can the rush grow up without mire? Can the flag (margin reed-grass) grow without water?). Some such general term as sedges or fens would better meet the requirements.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Flag
Fig. 182Cyperus esculentus
This word (in the original achu) occurs in Job 8:11, where it is said, ‘Can the rush grow up without mire? can the flag grow without water?’ Achu occurs also twice in Gen 41:2; Gen 41:18; ‘And, behold, there came up out of the river seven well-favored kine and fat-fleshed, and they fed in a meadow:’ here it is rendered meadow, and must, therefore, have been considered by our translators as a general, and not a specific term.
From the context of the few passages in which achu occurs, it is evident that it indicates a plant or plants which grew in or in the neighborhood of water, and also that it, or they were suitable as pasturage for cattle. Now it is generally well known that most of the plants which grow in water, as well as many of those which grow in its vicinity, are not well suited as food for cattle; some being very watery, others very coarse in texture, and some possessed of acrid and even poisonous properties. Some species of scirpus, or club-rush, however, serve as food for cattle: S. cespitosus, for instance, is the principal food of cattle and sheep in the highlands of Scotland, from the beginning of March till the end of May. Varieties of S. maritimus, found in different countries, and a few of the numerous kinds of Cyperaceae common in Indian pastures, as Cyperus dubius and hexastachyus, are also eaten by cattle. Therefore, if any specific plant is intended, as seems implied in what goes before, it is perhaps one of the edible species of scirpus or cyperus, perhaps C. esculentus, which, however, has distinct Arabic names: or it may be a true grass; some species of panicum, for instance, which form excellent pasture in warm countries, and several of which grow luxuriantly in the neighborhood of water.
But it is well known to all acquainted with warm countries subject to excessive drought, that the only pasturage to which cattle can resort is a green strip of different grasses, with some sedges, which runs along the banks of rivers or of pieces of water, varying more or less in breadth according to the height of the bank, that is, the distance of water from the surface. Cattle emerging from rivers, which they may often be seen doing in hot countries, as has been well remarked in the Pictorial Bible on Gen 41:2, would naturally go to such green herbage as intimated in this passage of Genesis, and which, as indicated in Job 8:11, could not grow without water in a warm dry country and climate.
Fuente: Popular Cyclopedia Biblical Literature
Flag
1. achu, a soft reed that can only grow in moist ground: it is eaten by cattle. Job 8:11.
2. suph , a weed that grows on the banks of the Nile, among which Moses in the ark was laid. Exo 2:3; Exo 2:5; Isa 19:6.
Fuente: Concise Bible Dictionary
Flag
1. General references
Exo 2:3; Exo 2:5; Job 8:11; Isa 19:6; Jon 2:5
2. An ensign
Ensign
Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible
Flag
Flag. There are two Hebrew words rendered “flag” in our Bible:
1. A word of Egyptian origin, and denoting “any green and course herbage, such as rushes and reeds, which grows in marshy places.” Gen 41:2; Gen 41:18, (here translated meadow). It is perhaps the Cyperus esculentus.
2. A word which appears to be used in a very wide sense to denote “weeds of any kind.” Exo 2:3; Exo 2:5; Isa 19:6.
Fuente: Smith’s Bible Dictionary
Flag
, occurs Gen 41:2; Gen 41:18; Job 8:11; and , weeds, Exo 2:3; Exo 2:5; Isa 19:6; Joh 2:5. The word achu in the first two instances is translated meadows, and in the latter, flag. It probably denotes the sedge, or long grass, which grows in the meadows of the Nile, very grateful to the cattle. It is retained in the Septuagint in Genesis, ; and is used by the son of Sirach, Sir 40:16, and ; for the copies vary.
We have no radix, says the learned Chapelow, for , unless we derive it, as Schultens does, from the Arabic achi, to bind or join together.’ Thus, Parkhurst defines it a species of plant, sedge, or reed, so called from its fitness for making ropes, or the like, to connect or join things together; as the Latin juncus, a bulrush,’ a jungendo, from joining,’ for the same reason; and he supposes that it is the plant, or reed, growing near the Nile, which Hasselquist describes as having numerous narrow leaves, and growing about eleven feet high, of the leaves of which the Egyptians make ropes.
The word is called by Eben Ezra, a reed growing on the borders of the river. Bochart, Fuller, Rivetus, Ludolphus, and Junius and Tremellius, render it by juncus, carex, or alga; and Celsius thinks it the fucus or alga, sea weed. Dr. Geddes says there is little doubt of its being the sedge called sari, which, as we learn from Theophrastus and Pliny, grows on the marshy banks of the Nile, and rises to the height of almost two cubits. This, indeed, agrees very well with Exo 2:3; Exo 2:5, and the thickets of arundinaceous plants, at some small distances from the Red Sea, observed by Dr. Shaw; but the place in Jonah seems to require some submarine plant.